Fail Newport test and you are dropped – Guardiola

Pep Guardiola has issued a stark warning to his Manchester City players ahead of their FA Cup tie at lowly Newport County today.

If they fail to treat the Welsh team with the respect they deserve or are put off by the treacherous state of the Rodney Parade pitch, they can forget about playing in the glamour games that follow.

Newport share their ground with two rugby union teams, so the Premier League leaders will not find the surface much to their liking.

City resume their Champions League campaign with the first leg of their last-16 tie away to Schalke on Wednesday before taking on Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final a week tomorrow, so the big games are coming thick and fast.

Throw in the title race with Liverpool and it would be easy to regard a match against a team 15th in League Two – 82 places beneath them – as a chance to relax, but Guardiola will not accept anything less than the maximum effort from his players.

“I expect the best performance by each one of them,” he said. “Focus on all the details. That is the best way to prepare for Schalke and the Carabao Cup final.

“When you want to play a final in one week, or a tough game in the Champions League, the best way to prepare is to make a good game.

“The players have to risk. It would be a problem for them if they don’t risk and play like a professional to win the game.

“If they think about the next game, maybe the next one they stay here and they don’t travel to Germany. In those situations, I’m not a sweet guy. They have to take it seriously and play the game like it deserves.”

The state of the pitch has caused concern but Guardiola drew comparisons with the game at Wembley in October when City were forced to play Tottenham Hotspur on a Monday night, just over 24 hours after the stadium had played host to an American football match.

“We have to adapt,” he said. “It is what it is, so we accept the challenge. We played in the Premier League against Tottenham after two NFL games and the pitch was not good. If it can happen in the Premier League, it can happen with a team from a lower division.”

The FA Cup is the only major English trophy that Guardiola has not won as a manager and he would love to put that right in May.

Having suffered a shock loss to League One Wigan Athletic 12 months ago, City’s manager is aware of the potential to be on the end of another huge upset, as Newport have already knocked out Leicester City and Middlesbrough to earn this lucrative tie.

“We treat them with a lot of respect,” he added. “They’ve done incredibly in this competition and what they do, they do it really well.”